American Country Countdown
American Country Countdown is a weekly, long-running syndicated radio program, currently hosted by Kix Brooks (of the country music duo Brooks and Dunn), which counts down the 30 most popular radio songs in the United States.
The show's history dates to October 6, 1973, and was conceived as a spinoff of American Top 40. Both programs were created by Don Bustany, Tom Rounds and Los Angeles radio personality (and Voice Actors) Casey Kasem. Initially, Don Bowman – a Lubbock, Texas, native who became famous for his comedy recordings and association with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson – was the host. While he did a very credible job, conflicts with his touring schedule eventually forced him to give up the show in the spring of 1978. Bob Kingsley, who began producing the program in the spring of 1974, took over as host, and the rest was history.
The Kingsley era was arguably the height of the program, with his shows very much similar to Kasem's programs, in both hosting style and features: the occasional oldie or album cut, and stories about each of the songs. ACC – as the show is sometimes known – was initially three hours (just like AT40 in its early years), and expanded to four effective with the January 18, 1986, show.
Like AT40, ACC plays requests and dedications from listeners, today called "ACC Inbox". Much like Kasem's "Long Distance Dedication," the requests were often sentimental in nature and directed at someone whom the listener had not seen in some time, or an anniversary of a landmark event (such as an anniversary or a relative's death).
Kingsley hosted ACC until 2005, when he was forced out after ABC Radio Networks – which owns the program – wanted to revamp the show; the announcement was made in October, and Kingsley's last program was December 24, the last regular countdown program of 2005. Kingsley started a rival program, Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40, while ACC tapped Brooks as its new host. After several weeks of substitute hosts, Brooks took over on January 21, 2006.
Like AT40, song-ranking data originally came from Billboard magazine, only this time using the Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) chart. The show has used Mediabase as its chart source since August 2009. The show's chart length was trimmed to 30 songs effective February 12, 2011.
- The Eighties and The Nineties: When the show was arguably at the height of its power, although it actually started in The Seventies and is still doing well today.
- Guest Host: Late in his tenure, Kingsley would often take one or two weeks off per year and hand the mic over to someone else (usually a DJ at a major market radio station). Incidentally, Kingsley was a guest host about a half dozen times during the Don Bowman era of the mid-1970s, usually when Bowman's touring schedule didn't allow him to make the trip to Los Angeles to record the program; other top country acts of the day – including Red Stegall – hosted ACC's special programs during the 1970s. Today, Donna Britt, executive producer of ACC, handles the guest duties when Brooks is absent.
- Long List/Top Ten List: Thirty songs (originally 40), plus a couple of extras, in four hours (originally three).
- Long Runner: The program debuted in 1973 and has been going strong ever since.
- Nothing but Hits: The entire premise of the program. Anyone who has been fortunate enough to obtain vintage copies of past programs – especially those from early in the run – would hear hit songs of their day that have likely not been played anywhere for 30-plus years.
- Quietly Performing Sister Show: Of the parent program, AT40.
- Rearrange the Song: Like AT40, single edits were usually used ... and when time was running short, some of those songs would be butchered even further.
- Oddly, a couple songs late in the Kingsley era seemed to always be presented in abridged fashion even though they weren't that long of a song to begin with.
- Spin-Off: ACC is the country version of AT40.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: Late in the Kingsley era, the commercial bumpers were often sound-alikes of country songs.